Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) has been used to aid in the healing of certain wounds such as hypoperfused grafts, side effects from radiation therapy, and necrotizing anaerobic bacterial infections. A study by Jan, et al evaluated whether HBO therapy could alter the critical size for spontaneous healing of a bone defect using a rabbit calvarial model. The authors define a critical size defect as the smallest full-thickness osseous wound that will not heal spontaneously during the lifetime of an animal. This type defect requires an adjunctive technique in order to achieve complete healing of the bone.
In this study, 2 groups of animals with calvarial defects of critical size (15 mm) on one side and supra-critical size (18 mm) on the contralateral side were used. One group received HBO treatment sessions of 90 minutes (2.4 absolute atmospheric pressure) per day for 20 consecutive days, and the control group did not receive HBO treatment. Half of the animals in each group were sacrificed at 6 weeks, and half at 12 weeks. Analyses were performed to compute the amount of regenerated bone within the defects.
The study found that bone regeneration was significantly greater in the animals treated with HBO regardless of the size of the defect. The rabbit calvarial critical size defect model is suitable for assessing the effectiveness of HBO therapy on cranio-maxillofacial bone repair, and it may be suitable for examining the effect of HBO in combination with various grafting materials or bone substitutes in the future, according to the authors.
(Source: Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology. Vol. 101, No. 2, February 2006)
